Sacred Heart 68 Mercer County 62

[dime dropper]

Terrific final game in the Mercer County Tournament last night. I came away impressed by both teams. Big plays made by multiple girls from both teams all night. Houston (MC) did a fabulous job getting to the rim and finishing. Her speed challenged SH most of the evening. Souder (MC) did a nice job getting her points within the offense and on put backs. Robins (MC) who is a talented player had an off night. Likely the result of a lot of games over the last 12 days and the defense played by Sivils (SH). Sivils has the ability to frustrate good offensive players. After four days of watching a lot of basketball at Mercer Co, the best player on the court for the four days was Berger (SH). Berger was well deserving of the MVP. Last night Berger and Samsuel (SH) had quality offensive performances with 21 points each. Much of that was setup by Harris (SH) dropping 8 dimes. I look forward to seeing both of these team compete in the upcoming LIT in January.

[kyhoopfever]

Sounds like it was a great matchup

Robins had a quiet night

Did the Valkyries do anything special to slow her down?

[kyhoopfever]

Also by looking at the scores it appears Mercer dominated all their other opponents in this tournament while Sacred Heart won by lesser margins

Were the brackets unbalanced in Mercers favor ?

How did Heart manage the full court press and half court zone traps?

[passtheball]

Also by looking at the scores it appears Mercer dominated all their other opponents in this tournament while Sacred Heart won by lesser margins

Were the brackets unbalanced in Mercers favor ?

How did Heart manage the full court press and half court zone traps?

 

Well it's Mercer's holiday tournament, so I'm sure the bracketing favored them. Robins got into early foul trouble, which kept her on the bench for some time. She was also guarded by the Valkyries best defender (Silvils), who did a good job on her.

 

For the most part SHA didn't have any trouble with the full court press or the zone traps, which many times lead to easy baskets or open threes. They had some turnovers, but all in all handled the pressure pretty well. SHA shot 55% from the three in the first half and 48% for the game going for 11/23. When firing on all cylinders, SHA can shoot the ball really well. They have multiple players that are high percentage shooters. SHA is tough to press because they have good ball handlers. Grace Berger is very skilled with the ball and is tall enough to throw over the top of the traps when they come. If Mercer doesn't turn you over it leads to open looks.

 

This was an exciting game to watch because both teams have so much young talent on the floor. The pace of the game was fast making it very entertaining. These will be top teams in the state for the next couple of years because most of the players are sophomores and freshman, so I'm sure they will have some other good battles between these programs over the next 2 1/2 years. (maybe as soon as the upcoming LIT)

 

Good luck for the rest of the year to two good programs with quality kids.

Edited January 2, 2016 by passtheball
spelling

[CAP]

Also by looking at the scores it appears Mercer dominated all their other opponents in this tournament while Sacred Heart won by lesser margins

Were the brackets unbalanced in Mercers favor ?

How did Heart manage the full court press and half court zone traps?

 

The schedule was in Mercer's favor for sure, beating everyone by 20+ points a game and keeping different starters in the whole game they blew other teams out which I thought was ridiculous but in the end they met up with a team that could play with them and well you see the results.

[Cheezy]

To reach the finals

SH beat GRC, Danville & Cov Holy Cross.

Mercer County beat Rowan Co. Newport Central Catholic & Boyle Co.

I don't see an advantage to either path. Sacred Heart played better in the Championship game than Mercer did.

SH out rebounded the Titans and shot 48% from the arc. They had a good night. It was a fun game to watch with14 lead changes in the first half. Titans down 1 with a couple minutes to go... could have went either way. Congrats to the Valkyries on the win.